Traditional irrigation systems employed for wide varieties of plants have relied upon flooding techniques or sprinklers. Irrigation systems employing such sprinklers commonly include one or more nozzles arranged above ground towards hand operating under relatively high pressure. The nozzles are designed to spray relatively finely divided droplets water into the air. The nozzles are arranged as necessary in order to provide coverage for the plants requiring irrigation.
A nozzle of the type referred to immediately above was disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 1,758,119 issued May 13, 1932, to Le Moone. That reference is representative of a wide variety of such high pressure nozzles employed as sprinklers.
More recently, so-called "drip irrigation" techniques have been employed in irrigation systems. These drip irrigation systems operate under relatively low water pressure and include emitters for emitting or dripping water directly onto the ground. Accordingly, these drip emitters have commonly been arranged closely adjacent each of the plants to be irrigated. Drip irrigation systems have been found superior in that less water need be applied to an area to be irrigated. At the same time, these systems include numerous other advantages such as avoiding undesirable run-off.
A drip irrigation valve or emitter of the type discussed immediately above was disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,853 issued Aug. 17, 1976 to Bentley. Here again, this patent is typical of a wide variety of emitters employed in drip irrigation systems. Such an emitter was also disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,735 issued Aug. 22, 1972 to Foster.
In view of numerous advantages such as those set forth above, drip irrigation systems have become widely employed as a superior means for irrigation in a wide variety of applications including agricultural corps, ornamental gardens, etc.
However, in view of the time necessary to install, employ and operate such irrigation systems, as well as the need to minimize water requirements while achieving superior results in the form of higher crop yield, improved plant characteristics and the like, there has been found to remain a need for even further improvements in such irrigation systems.